Bonds said he used steroids unknowingly

Sheffield: Slugger said do what I do

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds told a federal grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by the Bay Area laboratory now enmeshed in a sports doping scandal, but he said he never thought they were steroids.

Federal prosecutors charge that the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, known as BALCO, distributed undetectable steroids to elite athletes in the form of a clear substance that was taken orally and a cream that was rubbed onto the body.

Bonds testified on Dec. 4, 2003, that he received and used clear and cream substances from his personal strength trainer, Greg Anderson, during the 2003 baseball season but was told they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Chronicle.

Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield testified that while he trained with Bonds in the Bay Area before the 2002 baseball season, Bonds arranged for him to receive "the cream," "the clear" and "red beans," which the prosecutors identified as steroid pills made in Mexico.

Sheffield said he never was told that the substances were steroids. Bonds also was using "the cream" and "the clear," Sheffield said.

"Nothing was between me and Greg. Barry pretty much controlled everything," Sheffield testified. "... It was basically Barry (saying), `Trust me, do what I do.'"

Federal prosecutors confronted Bonds during his testimony with documents indicating he had used steroids and human growth hormone during a three-year assault on baseball's home run record, but the Giants star denied the allegations.

During the three-hour proceeding, two prosecutors presented Bonds with documents that allegedly detailed his use of a long list of drugs: human growth hormone, Depo-Testosterone, undetectable steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear," insulin and Clomid, a drug for female infertility sometimes used to enhance the effect of testosterone.

The documents, many with Bonds' name on them, are dated from 2001 through 2003. They include a laboratory test result that could reflect steroid use and what appeared to be schedules of drug use with billing information, prosecutors told the grand jury.

In a September 2003 raid on Anderson's Burlingame, Calif., home, federal investigators seized documents they said showed Bonds was using banned drugs, according to court records. Anderson was indicted in February on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute steroids in the BALCO case.

Bonds' attorney, Michael Rains, said he was upset, though not entirely surprised, his client's secret testimony had been revealed. He said he had no proof but suspected the government was the source of the leak, insisting it had been out to get Bonds from the beginning.

An attorney for Anderson said a court order precluded her from commenting.

Bonds said that as far as he knew, Anderson gave him only legal products to treat the arthritis and fatigue that afflicted him, especially when playing a day game after a night game.